I can see many of you out there make products from vintage fabrics. My partner had a vintage petticoat, and asked me to sell it for her on a well known auction site.
It went for almost £100, and surprised both of us how much interest, watchers, and views we had, considering there was a little bit of work needed to it. I think it sold because I took time to take the photos and showed the workmanship and detail in the item in close-up.
Did see on Folksy a cute cake stand, which used old records for the cake supports ! Not sure about all those cake crumbs in the grooves though ! But I like the concept.
I think vintage is a bit like vinyl records. The interest in it never dies, and is quite sought-after if well designed and the quality is there. Good vintage items seem to hold their price well, and recycling fabrics and similar is a great idea. As time goes on it may become harder to find good vintage items , but I suppose even some stuff today will be seen as ‘vintage’ in the 2060’s and onwards.
Do any of you search out vintage items to sell on, or just look to recycle vintage fabrics and items to make something from them and sell on Folksy or elsewhere ?
There are rules regarding what sort of vintage items we can sell on Folksy. I couldn’t just buy old jewellery and list it here (but I could on E**y where the rules are different), I have to significantly alter it in someway. I do source old beads and recycle them into new jewellery as old beads have a certain charm to them, the problem with this is I’m not always entirely certain as to what the beads are made of - especially vintage plastics. I don’t advertise it here but I do pick up work repairing and altering vintage jewellery when I’m at craft shows.
You are right it is getting increasingly difficult to get good quality vintage at a reasonable price as people are starting to see its value (or hoping it has value). Stuff that was once ending up at charity shops is now ending up on ebay, making it easier to find but you end up paying the price as everyone else has found it too.
I have a lot of vintage materials in my stash which were bough new from material shops years ago and some that was given to me. Every now and then I use some of them to make things.
My house is filled with older stuff china mostly with some Victorian glassware, 3 working Singer Sewing machines, and of course some lovely furniture. Some of my stuff is antique eg over 100 years old.
I hate to see items lose their true monetary value because someone doesn’t know there real value and makes it into something else that is then sold for less than the original could have been sold for.
I hate to see beautiful expensive antique furniture lose it’s value and be ruined because someone has decided to paint/distress it.
I once when out walking saw someone making a bonfire in their garden and realized they were about to throw some Lord Loom chairs onto it. I quickly called out and offered to buy them.
I think I paid the guy £10 for all four I kept them and used for over a year then sold them for just over £100.
My father in law rescued cabinet from the early 1700’s that was about to go into a skip, simply because the house was being cleared and no one knew how much it was worth. Three years ago after having it appraised he gave it to us as a wedding anniversary present. It’s worth a heck of a lot of money and is insured as such
I have some very pretty Victorian embroidered table linens only thing is some have some rather large stains and/or small holes that I can’t remove. I’m now torn between cutting the table cloths up and re using the undamaged parts. Should I cut them up and make placemats/coaster/napkins with whatever I can salvage or just use them as they are with the stains and tiny holes?
As for Folky well its a site for British handmade by British crafters so really vintage items unless altered by use can’t be sold here. However there are UK sites that do sell unaltered vintage besides Ebay.
I’m thinking of venturing out into vintage at some point as my house can only hold so much stuff
And yes you will see me use some vintage items re purposed here if they are too damaged/spoiled to sell as vintage anymore. In fact I’m creating a patchwork quilt for a customer with vintage materials from a few of 60s skirts/dresses that have been stained or ripped so I’m re using the good parts and binning the stained parts. The customer is so pleased as they were her mothers skirts and dresses.
Ive just come back from buying a couple of jackets, one very vintage.
I sold at a vintage fair at the weekend for the first time. I took some of my vintage inspired crafts but soon realised people just wanted clothing and accessories so its what Il be looking for in future.
Im going to try to upcycle both jackets eg new buttons
I guess good quality vintage items will be harder to find as years go on but there will always be people that dont realise they are sought after and just donat them to charity shops(although they have cottoned on to the trend and upped the prices) But half the fun is finding the “treasure”.
I LOVE vintage!
Love the history behind an item, the quality - the uniqueness.
I recently bought a gorgeous 1950s cabinet for the kitchen, and a 1940s writing desk.
Clothes wise, I love the 1960s, and also reuse many vintage fabrics in items I sell.
My best charity shop bargain is an extra large man’s jacket in vintage Harris Tweed, which I bought for £2 last week.
I bought a 1960’s hand made cocktail dress with beading and rhinestones many years back for £10 with the aim of shortening it. My dad (son of a dress maker) told me firmly ‘no’ and I’m so glad I listened to him - I’ve had it taken in to fit and now wear to weddings/ parties - basically anything I can get away with wearing it to. I’d wear more vintage if I could find someone locally who could do all the alterations to get it to fit (evidently they weren’t my shape back in the 50’s/ 60’s).
I have vintage glass and ceramics which sit nicely along side the modern hand made stuff, my furniture is a mix of modern, vintage in its original state and reworked vintage (the desk I’m currently sat at was made from two 70’s ones rescued from a skip - they were never going to win style awards but the teak is gorgeous and deserved a new life).
Yep there is a large vintage vibe which is continuing to grow. There are a few local vintage fairs too which I pop along to incl Fort in the Forties which celebrates all things vintage incl cars, uniforms; for some it’s the way they wish to live, back in what they feel is a golden age.
I have some vintage embroidery that I use to create items in my shop (a duck, hare head, and moon gazing hare so far!). It’s something a bit different and I love the fact that I’m repurposing textiles that people have handstitched years ago.
I bought some vintage Liberty fabric some years ago and made it into cushion covers which I recently sold on the auction site and I even sold the bit of fabric that was left.
I love vintage clothing, furniture, and kitchen gadgets. We have an old coffee grinder, which we use for spices etc. But as I am well over 60 I would look a bit old fashioned if I wore vintage, but I love to see younger people wearing vintage.
This may be a silly question but what is condsidered to be vintage. I saw people selling at the vintage fair with modern day repro’s in 50’s style, is that ok.
I also saw a few 80’s jumpers.
So what would you consider to be vintage? As recently as the 80’s?
Antique has a definition (over 100 years old) but vintage and retro don’t. Vintage tends to be older than retro, eg 50’s/ 60’s would be vintage but 70’s/ 80’s would be retro but that is a general rule and it is upto the seller as to how they label things. Anything less that 20 years old is second hand or pre loved but that doesn’t mean that it is not worth having and won’t get mixed in with much older stuff.
Repros should be labelled as such (eg vintage style rather than just vintage) but it is normally obvious if clothing is repro (quality of fabric/ stitching and style of fastenings).
That’s interesting @SashaGarrett and something I wasn’t aware of. I was given a fabulous selection of fabrics that my mother-in-law had bought during her years in Asia which I have started using for my wallets. Many are 60s moving into very early 70s (I’ve also been given a pretty 70s Ladybird party dress - brings back lots of memories) and I’ve been listing them as vintage, following what I’ve seen in other shops online. Perhaps I should alter this to be vintage and retro.
Put both vintage and retro - there is no firm definition, people often go on the ‘feel’ of an item, using both terms you will catch people using either. In theory something could have been designed in the 60’s and made in the 70’s depending on the length of the production run so do you call it 60’s or 70’s? It’s all a bit of a minefield until it’s over 100 years old as there are no legal definitions.
I love a bit of vintage although the budget doesn’t stretch as far as it used to as it becomes more and more popular and I do find myself having to be a lot more careful as more dross filters through but I can still find the odd wee lovely here and there.
I tend to go for smaller things, scarves etc instead of clothing, and things little diddly little pieces of furniture, frames, little vanity mirrors and small ornamental things (or functional things I can use for decoration) for around the house.
I did snaffle a lovely 60s sideboard a few weeks ago, it’s living in mum’s spare room until I decorate my living room and it’ll be perfect in here. It only cost £20, hasn’t been particularly well looked after so in the end it will need filled, sanded and painted as it’s in a bit of dire nick as is:) Really lovely shape though, just what I had in my head for my living room and anything new, including repros always seemed to be nearly … but not quite.
I quite like saving the things that have one foot in the grave, maybe they aren’t particular well known and aren’t worth any money at all but even just from a build quality perspective they’re worth saving as they’re often made of tougher stuff than most of what is made these days.
There are ikea shelves and a wardrobe in the daughter’s room that are little more than firewood with a few thumb tacks holding it together and they aren’t even 2 years old, utter rubbish.
Oh and the vintage -v- retro thing … which I look for very much depends on how much is in the bank:)
That could just be me though, I imagine that retro is like vintage without the pricetag, I could be very wrong, it’s just an old habit when I’m looking online for something.
I always think vintage should be at least 50 years old, with retro maybe 20 years plus. I agree there’s no hard and fast rule though, it seems to vary a lot. I love the quality of vintage pieces, and the fact that they are different and rare.
Occasionally there are still bargains to be had, picked up a whole box full of vintage tablecloths at my local auction rooms in the summer for £5. That day no one else was interested. However since then they have only had poor quality stuff. But that’s the fun of vintage, retro etc , you have to search for it and sometimes you hit the jackpot.
I make bowls out of vintage florals . I agree with bigbirdlittlebird it feels really good to re purpose fabrics.
I love vintage! I use my powder compacts all the time and have a kitchen full of vintage china and glass! I like to upcycle small things, like my wooden memo pegs, and have plans for a couple of pieces of broken china. I also have a vintage shop on another website, I love looking for little pieces of treasure and now I have the perfect excuse!
Really pleased there is such a buzz for a wide range of vintage items. Recycling is great either selling or passing the item on or, in some cases, adapting a vintage item.
Here is the petticoat that we sold for my partner:
(The pictures not shown are the ones where it was ironed, and so far less crumpled)
I’m another one who loves vintage-I use 1950’s glass buttons as fasteners for some of my beadwork. I also collect the victorian ones but I have no intention of using these as they are too rare.
This is one of my beadwork cuffs with the vintage button closure of which I have sold 3 outside of folksy. I don’t do them often though, as they do involve a lot of work (and eye-strain)! The paint on the button is real gold-something you would never see on a button nowadays.
